John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights, by David S. Reynolds. Alfred A. Knopf, 578 pages, $35.
On Nov. 7, 1959, The Chicago Defender commemorated the centennial of John Brown’s death: “The paradox of Brown’s idealistic goals and his fearless methods are still being argued in Read More
Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Fraud-American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin, by Peter Charles Hoffer. PublicAffairs, 287 pages, $26.
Last time I graded a batch of undergraduate papers for a big lecture class, I spent more time online searching for the sources of peculiar phrases than I did correcting Read More
Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828 , by Walter A.
McDougall. HarperCollins, 638 pages, $29.95.
Every chronicle of European settlement of the New World must
include a boat. The boat you choose will shape the story you tell. Start with
the Niña , the Pinta and the Santa Maria , Read More
